1961 Southend Premier, 31 March - 3 April 1961

1961 Southend Premier		1	2	3	4	5	6	Total
1	James B Howson	&;	½	½	1	½	1	3½
2	Peter Campbell Gibbs	½	&;	½	1	½	½	3
3	John E Littlewood	½	½	&;	0	1	1	3
4	Martin Blaine	0	0	1	&;	0	1	2
5	Konstantin V Grivainis	½	½	0	1	&;	0	2
6	Brian J Moore	0	½	0	0	1	&;	1½

CHESS, April 1961, Vol.26/383-4, p255

Gibbs played very much to form, though his win against Blaine was inspired (See games). Moore, who had been in retirement for three years, had an unlucky return; he played well in the first couple of rounds, but thereafter bad opening play plus frequent time shortage were serious handicaps. His game against Howson being a case in point, both players missing several winning continuations and Howson finally winning on the 89th move, this thrice adjourned game lasting long after the prize giving ceremony.

The surprise of this tournament was the comparative failure of J. E. Littlewood. Luck ran against him. Against Blaine he rejected a drawing line, overcombined and lost. Against Gibbs he may have missed a winning continuation that was extremely difficult to see. Perhaps his greatest upset was against the winner Howson; during a time scramble both flags fell, with Littlewood and Howson still having one move each to make. To the onlookers it appeared as though Littlewood still had a minute left whilst Howson only had a fraction (certainly not more than ten seconds). Littlewood, wishing to avoid acrimony, sportingly proposed to play out their last move each without regard to the clock. Howson consequently had some twenty valuable minutes for his last move before time control.

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Southend Chess Club maintains an excellent and comprehensive online record of results from its Easter congress

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File Updated

Date	Notes
12 January 2026	First upload. Five games played by John Littlewood.